MORE THAN 2,600 Chinese mainland companies have opened offices in Hong Kong, the city’s leader said today.
The east-west city, once seen largely as a gateway for international businesses to enter the China market, is now super-busy enabling traffic to move the other way too.
The Chinese business sector has become highly innovative and Hong Kong ensures its products get out to the wider world, Chief Executive John Lee said at the International Forum on China’s Economy and Policy 2025 today.
To guarantee success, Hong Kong is providing specialist help.
“Our Task Force on Supporting Mainland Enterprises in Going Global, launched last month, will co-ordinate efforts to help mainland enterprises connect, more efficiently, with global markets and buyers, taking advantage of our world-class financial and professional services,” Mr Lee said.
HIGH-POWERED AUDIENCE
Mr Lee was speaking in front of a high-powered audience, which included Zhao Zhimin, head of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Nobel laureate Professor Joseph Stiglitz.
The Hong Kong leader was in a positive mood, after this year’s World Competitiveness Yearbook ranked Hong Kong in the global top three.
“The Fraser Institute once again ranked Hong Kong as the world’s freest economy, number one, and we placed third in the latest Global Financial Centres Index, just two points back of New York, one behind London – and tops in Asia,” Mr Lee said.
STIGLITZ WARNING ON INEQUALITY
Nobel economic laureate Joseph Stiglitz, meanwhile, is on an international speaking tour on which he is drumming up attention to deep concerns about the problem of inequality. He believes the issue has become so pressing that it needs coordinated global action to address it, in the same way that climate change has needed a change in global energy strategies.
The inequality problem has led to anger that has led to polarization, violence, and the rise of a dangerous type of populism, he argues.
The theme of the event is Economic Transformations in a Multipolar World, and has attracted an audience of more than 500, including top business people from east and west.
Also due to speak is Michael Spence, another Nobel laureate in economics.
Image at the top from Hong Kong Government Information Services.